Posts Tagged ‘Philadelphia Orchestra’

15-time Grammy Award-winner Itzhak Perlman has been announced as the special guest with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs on Wednesday, August 20. Perlman will be doing double duty for the evening – playing violin on Bach’s Violin Concerto in A Minor, as well as taking the podium to conduct the orchestra. Tickets will go on sale to SPAC members in February and to the general public in March.

Meanwhile, the Lew Tabackin Trio is the first act to be announced for the 2014 Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival. The flutist-saxman and his band – bassist Boris Kozlov and drummer Mark Taylor – are slated to perform on the Gazebo stage on Saturday, June 28, the first day of the two-day fest.

Although master saxophonist Branford Marsalis is best known as a world renowned jazz musician, composer and educator, he’s nothing if not versatile – having played with such diverse musicians as Sting, Public Enemy and the Dead.

But he’s also quite an accomplished classical saxophonist, as he’ll prove on Wednesday night at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center when he joins the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of conductor Giancarlo Guerrero. The program will feature Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun,” Bizet’s “Suite from Carmen,” Williams’ “Escapades for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra, Ravel’s “Bolero” and “Rapsodie Espagnole,” as well as Milhaud’s “Scaramouche Suite for Saxophone and Orchestra.” The concert gets underway at 8pm.

Reserved amphitheater seats are currently on sale for $31, $41.50, $49.50, $65.50 and $72.50; general admission lawn tix are $20. And kids 12 and under are admitted free on the lawn.

BUT WAIT A MINUTE… We’ve got a pair of FREE LAWN TICKETS to give away to Wednesday night’s concert to a lucky Nippertown reader! To enter the contest, just post a comment below. Please leave your email address, too. We won’t publish it, but we’ll use it to contact you if you win. The winners will be selected at random and notified on Wednesday morning. Good luck! Congratulations, LP!

“Diva” is a word I’d personally like to eradicate from the lexicon. It’s often a dig wrapped in a compliment – a slap at a talented woman by implying that she’s difficult by default.

But it’s also a term commonly used to describe a leading female opera singer, or – in a campier sense – marquee-topping women in popular music.

For “Wicked Divas” night at SPAC last Thursday, two nights before the Philadelphia Orchestra ended its summer Saratoga run, the word “diva” was used broadly to tie together the most disparate of music – from the Broadway musicals of “Gypsy,” “Chicago,” “Ragtime” and, of course, “Wicked,” to the disco dance-floor hits of Diana Ross, Gloria Esteban and Donna Summer.

After 21 years as the artistic director and principal conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s annual summer season at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Charles Dutoit has stepped down to pass the baton to a successor yet to be named.

Chantal Juillet, concert violinist and the director of the Saratoga Chamber Music Festival at SPAC’s Spa Little Theater since 1991, is also vacating her position this year because she and Dutoit (husband and wife) are moving on to other artistic pastures elsewhere.

Wrapping it all all on Saturday is the Tchaikovksy Spectacular, featuring Polanise from Eugene Onegin, Piano Concerto No 1 in B-flat minor, Romeo and Juliet and, to top off the night (and the season), The 1812 Overture complete with live cannons and fireworks.

NOTE: And here it is – our last ticket giveaway for the Philadelphia Orchestra at SPAC this year. We’re giving away a FREE pair of lawn tickets to see Sarah Chang perform on Wednesday, August 16. How can you win? Simple. Just leave a comment below. Any comment at all. Please leave your email address, too. (We won’t publish it, but we’ll use it to contact you if you win.) The winner will be selected at random and notified on Wednesday morning. Good luck!. Congratulations, Rose!

SPAC has brought back “Celebration of an Artist” again this year, offering free lawn admission to see the Philadelphia Orchestra on Saturday, August 14 for you and a guest if you’re willing to demonstrate your artistic skills. Here’s what it looked like last year.

IMPORANT: If you’d like to participate, you need to register ahead of time by contacting Jen Gardner at SPAC at 518-584-9330 ext. 101 or intern@spac.org. Then you just need to show at 6pm with your easel and art supplies and work on your masterpiece until the concert starts at 8pm.